That's a Wrap

The Sheriff told Jason he could come up with a design for vinyl decals for the two new cars they'll be getting in this year. He was pumped at the possibility of designing, but also maybe being able to wrap a car with vinyl. He worked up several examples for under the price that they would normally have paid, and they liked them. They're going to buy our vinyl and let Jason put it on. He was so excited about it, he asked if he could put vinyl on his own car - his wouldn't normally have received new decals.

He replaced the decals on his car and worked out all the kinks for when he has to put the vinyl on the two new cars. It looks really good.

If you recall, this is before

Here's after

One afternoon, while he was working on his car in our driveway, the Othello Chief of Police drove by and saw Jason working on the vinyl. Several days later, he contacted Jason to see if he would like to put the vinyl decals on their new cars. Cool, huh? Jason has now done two Othello Police cars and will get the chance to do several more. They were very pleased with how well the cars turned out. Jason was surprised at how easy it was. It takes a lot of focus and methodical positioning, etc., but overall it went quite fast. I still need to get a before, but here is the after for the Othello Police Cars.

News Part II

So here is the second half of my exciting news about writing for the local newspaper, The Othello Independent. The owners recently bought the Mattawa/Royal paper, The South County Sun, and are putting in a column by ... me! Isn't that crazy?! It's an opinion column; kind of a slice of life take on things. I have really enjoyed coming up with ideas. The funny thing is that I've imagined myself writing just such a column and have, over the years, written different things for fun in that style.

Tomorrow will be my first printed column, but you can view it online here. The website for the South County Sun is currently under construction, as you will see if you go there. You can at least view the current issue.

So, my column will appear weekly. Please feel free to follow along. I do appreciate feedback. Let me know what you think.

double trouble...or just double

Early pictures...so I might have gotten a little carried away. I keep looking at these two and realizing that they aren't so little anymore. It's making me so sad.



Their favorite thing at Grandma Z's is to go out and see the cows. The moment we pull into the driveway and I get them down out of the car, they head over to look between the trees at the cows on the other side.

Claire with Grandma and Grandpa's dog - Shaurae

Ben loved it. Claire did not.

Ben got into the garbage and is chomping on a tomato he found. Yuck!

I have no idea who taught him that. I know I've probably done that in my time, but not lately so that he would have seen me do it. Silly guy!

Kickin back

Claire got a hold of a bag of chocolate chips and dumped them all over the floor. She proceeded to clean them up and was soon met with reinforcements.

Ben and Claire love to play with ( as if he were the toy) their little cousin Warren - roughly six months. They just love to have their hands all over him. I hope they'll be great playmates as they get older.

We love being outside.

It's the fastest way to eat cereal in the morning. I'm sure Claire is saying something like "Uh-oh." Even though she does it too.

I love it when they give hugs.

They have taken a liking to my pots and pans of late.

This one was funny. I threw a batch of cookies away one night because they were too brown for my liking - I forgot to set the timer. I gave the twins their bath and got their diapers on at least so I could round up pajamas and bed time paraphernalia. I come back into the kitchen to find Ben with his arms full of the cookies I had thrown in the garbage. I laughed as I searched for my camera. I tell you, that boy and the garbage...

I found them sitting together in the rocking chair as we watched a movie. So cute!

Benjamin dumped the bag of sugar on the carpet. Everyone came to play and lick up what they could. Apparently we like food off the ground.

Claire fed her baby some milk and then wiped her face with a towel when the milk dribbled a little.

Feed the Birds

We went with Grandma and Grandpa Erickson to feed the ducks at Columbia Park in Tri-Cities. The twins absolutely loved it. This was their first time. Emma and Paul had a fun time throwing their bread out over the water and watching the seagulls fly and dive after it. Claire and Ben ate more than they threw out.

EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it!

Jason was taking pictures of me while I was on the phone with the publisher. That's why my mouth is all crazy. He was very supportive, staying up with me until I finished. He watched the office online with headphones on. Like that was so hard for him.

I got my first article published in The Othello Independent this week. (Click on the link and click at the bottom of the pages to turn to the Schools page. Mine is the McFarland article.) I'm covering the school board meetings here in Othello. It was a lot of fun. Kind of stressful to attend the meeting Monday night and write the article the same night so it could go in this week's paper. But it was a good stress I think. It reminded me of being in school. I liked school so it was a good feeling. I got the article done around 12:15 am and then dreamed about all the changes that it would need in the morning. Monday night is when they put the paper together so it can be sent to the printers and picked up Tuesday to go out in the mail on Wednesday. I even got to take the picture. Cool, Cool!

I'm grateful to the Independent for giving me the chance to write. This first article wasn't perfect, I know. But I'm grateful for the trust they're putting in me and the opportunity they're giving me. (And I know it's just because everyone else was so bored of covering the school board meetings. :) I'll take it though.) More to come!

Our own herd of eggimals

The Family Fun magazine had these easy little animals in this month's issue. Emma has been in dire need of something to do, and with mom. So today we declared a craft day and left the dishes in the sink. Luckily we had the supplies to make some cute animals of our own. (We substituted craft foam for the felt and it worked just great.)

Emma's pig, kitty, kangaroo, chicken,
mouse, skunk, and elephant

Paulie's skunk, dog, elephant, pig, owl, and frog
(he has a fly on his tongue - hard to see)

I ended up cutting and gluing because we were cutting such small pieces and using hot glue. But they were excited with each new creation. And I had a lot of fun making them. They now carry their eggimals around in two gallon sized zip lock bags. :0}

It's in the bag

Last year at Jason's family reunion we came away with this lovely box.

Emma didn't use it too many times before Paul took it over to store and carry around his Clifford books. The box was perfect for the longer, rectangular shaped books. He would also include the occasional Tom Train or Dalmations book. Emma didn't ever get mad that he was using it and try to take it back. And Paul was so attached it was a good thing. We took those "Difford" books to Grandma's on road trips and he took them to bed. They practically pushed him out of bed. But the times I tried to move them to the floor, he somehow sensed that they were not beside him and would promptly reach out for them. Well as you can tell, his precious box has seen better days. The clasp on the front is broken with part of it missing and the back side is detaching from the box.

He has found his own solution and is not sad that his box is broken. He has followed my lead and started using zip lock baggies. He first used them for his trains and cars so we could take them with us in the car or to church. We put his cards in a bag so they don't go all over the place. And now his books look like this...

What a clever little guy!

Progressive Dinner

Claire was watching me make dinner from her perch on a chair next to me. I turned back around from the stove and found her here getting a head start on dinner.

Yum! Yum!

Then when I got her down off the counter, she wanted her bowl and decided this would be a good spot to finish up. She stayed there for a little then headed outside where Ben promptly added dirt to my recipe. I knew I was missing something.

Spring is just around the corner

It's not the groundhog that tells me so. It's my kids. Every time Emma sees the sun shining she asks to go swimming. And lately they go outside without their coats and shoes as if it were the height of summer.